Category: Politics

Government slams DRP letter to donor delegates as “kids’ stuff”

The Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) has said the letter written by Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) leader Ahmed Thasmeen, which he addressed to the participants of the Maldives Donor Conference, is nothing but “the ramblings of a delusional person.”

On 28 March Thasmeen wrote a letter criticising the current government’s economic policies, saying that the country was being “consumed in destructive politics,” and the opposition was constantly “intimidated and harassed.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Ahmed Shaheed said the government had “invited DRP leaders and a number of opposition MPs” to the Donor Conference, but “none turned up.”

He said the letter was “devoid of any real substance” and was “a luke-warm attempt” to call for a ban on aid.

“We are in a democracy and we do not hide from criticism,” Dr Shaheed said. “They wrote this assuming we wouldn’t pass it on to the donors. We have passed it on to the donors to expose what kind of stuff the opposition are made of.”

Dr Shaheed said the “transition from autocracy to democracy” was not expected to be easy, and although “there is instability, we are not consumed by destruction. They wish we were consumed by destruction.”

He said the opposition was not being restrained or harassed, pointing out that this is “the only time in the history of this country that there has not been a political opponent in detention.”

“The DRP always see the law as a weapon. Now they have removed the Auditor General from his office by using the law as a weapon.”

Dr Shaheed acknowledged that the government had criticised independent commissions such as the Human Rights Commission for the Maldives (HRCM), saying “they are not doing their job. And I think people have a right to tell others when they are not doing their job.”

He reiterated that the DRP is “still living with a mentality where they think nothing can be said about anybody else.”

Dr Shaheed said the opposition was “against privatisation. They have no idea what liberal means, or what the government needs. They are not listening to what the president is saying.”

On the claims of the incompetence of newly appointed members of government companies, he said the DRP is not indicating any measure to judge competency.

“There is this claim that if you are a political activist you don’t qualify for a job, but this is wrong.”

Dr Shaheed said the government was working hard to fully implement democracy in the country, and “we are the most transparent government this country has had. The most open government this country has had.”

He said that the current government chose to address issues openly in parliament, and not with violence.

“Parliament is a place, not to punch people and call them names, but to work together. The parliament is where the opposition has the road to engage.”

He added “the opposition has so many opportunities to contribute to policies. They should learn to use them.”

None of the delegates of the conference had made any reference to the DRP’s letter, he said.

“DRP is calling this government irresponsible in fiscal policies, and you have the IMF giving us a grant based on our fiscal policies. Who are [the donors] going to believe?”

Press Secretary for the President’s Office Mohamed Zuhair said the “DRP leader wanted delegates to know they are not happy with the government’s economic policy.”

He said the IMF had been especially supportive of the government’s economic policies, and had issued a number of statements commending the government.

“So the question was whether the delegates should believe the IMF and their reports, or whether they are to believe the opposition party leader Thasmeen…about whom there have been comments that he and his family have outstanding debts to the tune of US$100 million to the Bank of Maldives.”

Zuhair said the letter was distributed to all the delegates and no one had made any response.

He added that DRP members and the Speaker of Parliament Abdulla Shahid were invited to the opening session and “abstained from coming.”

Thasmeen told Minivan News today that as far as he knew, DRP members had been invited to the opening ceremony of the Donor Conference, but he did not attend because “as a member of Parliament, I had other engagements.”

He said the letter and dossier the DRP had produced for the delegates “was sent through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and had been distributed at the conference.

He added that since the letter was sent out, “we have been having discussions with members of some delegations, but it would not be appropriate for me to discuss what went on in the meetings.”

Thasmeen said “we value and appreciate and welcome any assistance in development, and hope [the pledges] are realised soon.”

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Police summon DRP MPs for questioning over parliamentary brawl

Police yesterday summoned Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Vice president and MP Ali Waheed, DRP Vice president and MP Ahmed Ilham and DRP MP Ahmed Mahloof to police headquarters for questioning regarding last week’s brawl in parliament.

Waheed told the press that he assumed the police had summoned him in order to congratulate him on the no-confidence vote against Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem.

He said that the police questioned him about several cases, ”including a gathering near the president’s official residence, Muleeage, and about the brawl in parliament. They put the blame on us for everything happening in Male’,” Waheed said.

He claimed the questioning was a result of President Mohamed Nasheed “trying to stop us from making the government more responsible.”

”He thinks we will be afraid and back off,” he said, ”but that encourages us more.”

He said it was the DRP MPs who should have summoned the police, and questioned why they were taken into police custody on Thursday night.

”The government is planning to stop our activities and threaten us,” he said.

Ilham and Mahlouf told the press they chose to remain silent.

Press secretary for the president Mohamed Zuhair said the government had no role in the police questioning or arrest of DRP MPs, and that anyone disturbing the peace of country could expect to be arrested.

”Police will arrest them if they see them indulging in violent activity,” Zuhair said. “They were throwing rocks and chairs at a peaceful religious gathering. It’s like throwing stones at a mosque – police can’t simply ignore the matter because the throwers are MPs.”

Zuhair said he wished to repeat a quote made by former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom: ”No one is above the law”, and noted that the MPs were not arrested by ”temporarily kept in police custody.”

”The police will forward all the cases to the Prosecutor General when they have enough evidence,” he said.

”They are blaming president Nasheed just to gain political support, but the public won’t be fooled.”

Police Sub Inspector Ahmed Shiyam said the police was not just summoning the DRP MPs.

”We are investigating a case presented to us by the parliament,” Shiyam said. ”There are many independent MPs and MDP MPs to be brought for questioning.”

He said the details could not be given as police were currently investigating the case.

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Comment: The Maldivian Economic Situation

Economics is often referred to as the ‘dismal science’, partly because it mostly concerns us when things start to go bad.

In this sense, economics is a lot like medicine or public health. And so it is highly appropriate that we start comparing economic remedies to medicine – like what the President did when he asked the donor community for a ‘spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down’.

You may find yourself asking what exactly is the sickness for which we have to take such a bitter medicine. So what I will attempt to do in this first part of the article is to try and explain to you exactly what happened to our economy – in as plain, jargon-free, language as I can.

In the second part of the article (to follow soon) I will try and show you the remedies we need to take and to shed light on how to avoid getting into a similar mess in the future.

In order to understand our recent economic history, you must first know the three ways in which a government can affect the economy: fiscal policy (how much it spends from its taxes, revenues or borrowings) or monetary policy (how much money it prints) and exchange policy (how it allows goods and services to come in or go out of the country). So lets look at how our Governments – both Gayyoom and the MDP – have used these levers over the last few years.

The Big Wave

The key defining moment to start is the Tsunami of 2004 where we faced a previously unimaginable event that brought economic activity to a virtual standstill. The tsunami, however, happened in the context of two other very key social phenomena. Firstly, there was an emergence of a movement calling for political change that proved especially resilient and vocal. Secondly, there was a dramatic increase in global prices – food and oil prices especially.

The response to this was naturally a large spending program to rebuild the country. No doubt, the initial spending by the Government went to Tsunami affected purposes. However by 2006-07 the Government started doing two things.

First, it increased the size of the civil service from about 24,000 to about 32,000 people, and secondly increased their average salaries from about MRF3,000 to MRF11,000. As a result, government spending went from 35% of GDP in 2004 to about 60% of GDP in 2006.

I need to take a few more moments just to put this level of spending into perspective. Firstly, it is mentioned above that we expanded the civil service to be almost 32,000 people – that is almost 11 per cent of the total population of the country!

The comparative figure for other small island countries (like in the Caribbean) is at four per cent. Furthermore, the public sector wage bill (ie. all the salaries and allowances paid to this 11 per cent of people) accounted for almost 50 per cent of all our expenditure and almost 70 per cent of all our revenue.

Of course, all this expenditure is fine if we can actually pay for it. The question then becomes – where did the money for all of this increased expenditure come from?

It came from three sources – grants, loans and the additional revenue from leasing out a number of new resorts. The understandable impact this had on the supply of money was a three-fold increase.

One notable side-effect of this was a rising inflation of more than 20 per cent over the years: a factor that contributed to MDP making controlling inflation a major policy pledge. However all of this would have been manageable but for the third policy lever of a government – the exchange rate.

You would no doubt know that we in the Maldives have a pegged exchange rate – ie. it is fixed by a central authority to a specific currency at a specific value (in this case Rf12.85).

A policy of increasing public spending, and thereby increasing our supply of Maldivian rufiyaa AND keeping a fixed exchange rate, can only work if we also keep increasing our foreign currency stock. This is because the pegged exchange rate works on the assumption that if somebody comes to the MMA or Bank with any amount of rufiyya looking to buy US$, we should be able to cater to this.

With increased rufiyaa in circulation there was a large increase in demand for USD, but there was no real increase in supply of foreign reserves. This caused the ‘real’ exchange rate to shoot above Rf12.85, and thereby cause even worse inflation. As trust in the system started to disappear, those who actually had US$ no longer trusted to put the money into local banks.

All of this enormous stress on the system was there well before the greatest global economic collapse since the 1930s struck.

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC)

The two specific impacts of the GFC were two fold.

First there was a ‘credit crunch’ – the flow of finances between international banks stopped because none of the banks trusted each other. Financing to all those many resorts that were given out started drying up so our reserves fell even more. Secondly, tourist numbers started retrenching – and those tourists that did come spent a lot less.

It was about this time that the historic change in government took place and the MDP came to power. To their horror, they soon came to realize that they inherited a fiscal situation far worse than they had imagined.

This was due to the fact that government spending is often done through contracts that have long-term implications. Governments sign contracts that burden future governments to payments – both in terms of principal and interest payments.

The amount that the MDP government had to pay in interest alone – for projects that they themselves had nothing to do with – rose from three to eight per cent of GDP between 08-09.

Here therefore we need to introduce the final basic concept – that of the fiscal deficit. This simply is the difference between what we earn and what we spend divided by our GDP.

In 2008, this was at about -12.5 per cent, but the worrying thing was that given the fall in revenue projected by the GFC, this was projected to rise to almost 33 per cent in 2009.

Once again let’s put these figures in perspective. The highest the fiscal deficit reached in the USA – in 1945 straight after the Second World War – was at about 20 per cent.

Obama’s hugely expensive budget this year will increase his to just over 11 per cent. In Sri Lanka, the IMF refused financing to the current President because his latest fiscal deficit reached 10.5 per cent!

However way you look at it, we are in a desperate, desperate situation.

Don’t Blame it on the Sunshine

A key question you may therefore have is – who is responsible for this mess? Was it pure malice? Incompetence? Or did we just get unlucky?

Those who seek to justify the acts of the former regime would say that yes, they expanded the domestic money supply, but what you must also keep in mind is that they had just successfully bidded out 60+ resorts.

Even if you take a conservative estimate, we are talking about almost US$3 billion of investments.

Even assuming 50 per cent Maldivian staff, this is about 7,200 new jobs in the resorts alone. The total bed capacity increase was expected at 12,000 – so that is about US$4.2 million PER DAY in revenue. As such, an expansionary fiscal and monetary policy was justified on grounds of the revenue, returns and most importantly, reserves from this resort expansion. They could never have been expected to foresee the Global Financial Crisis coming.

On the other hand, critics would argue that in the years of Gayyoom’s presidency, especially in his last two years, rational economics was not the order of the day. Rather, the preoccupation of the regime was to stay in power at all costs.

If that meant bringing 10,000 extra staff and increasing their salary four-fold, as well as signing up to countless and often pointless public expenditure projects by borrowing large sums of money at exorbitant interest rates – so be it.

Critics would argue that if the Government were interested in anything other than self-preservation, they would have at least invested the money more wisely. It was reckless spending for purely political aims with no thought to the future health or wellbeing of the economy.

My own personal viewpoint is that we should leave the blame game for another day – if we take it up at all. The challenges to our economy, and by definition our fragile democracy, are far too great to waste time pointing fingers. I understand that political points have to be scored, but there are no elections in sight for at least 3-4 years.

We have arrived at a situation where we need to politically co-exist if we are to heal our economy. For now, leave aside your talk of past corruption or the future hell that awaits us if we do not veil our sisters. We have jobs to create, youth to educate, industries to develop and opportunities to exploit. I for one would like to look back on these days as a time when we all, blue and yellow supporters alike, did some pretty remarkably constructive things in the Maldives.

All comment pieces are the sole view of the author and do not reflect the editorial policy of Minivan News. If you would like to write an opinion piece, please send proposals to [email protected]

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Maldives announces US$313 million in pledges at Donor Conference

Speaking at the close of the 2010 Maldives Donor Conference, Vice President Dr Mohammed Waheed Hassan announced that the government has received pledges of support totalling US$313 million for a period of three years.

The crowded hall of donors at Bandos Island Resort and Spa included delegations from countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Australia, Japan and Norway, as well as international financial groups such as the International Monetary Fund, Islamic Development Bank and the sovereign wealth Abu Dhabi Fund. A breakdown of the pledges is not currently available, Minivan News was told, as several donor countries had requested time to consult their home agencies before solidifying the figure.

In the run-up to the donor conference the government identified key priority areas for investment, alongside budgetary support: macro economic reform, public sector reform, good governance, social development and climate change.

“I am grateful for the confidence you have shown in our country,” Dr Hassan told the donors. “This conference has been an opportunity for us to listen to donors’ views, and we have identified ways to up our coordination and cooperation with the donor community,” he said.

The government had been aiming for US$450 million, he said, although several senior government officials later told Minivan News that they considered “60-80 per cent of that target” a major success. Furthermore, they claimed, a great deal of ‘behind-the-scenes’ negotiations over the two day event would likely lead to further commitments.

There was, Dr Hassan said in his address, “an abundance of goodwill and more assistance will be forthcoming with more follow up from our side.”

He promised donors the government would “work with you to strengthen our management system”, and said the participation of donors was “a vote of confidence in this government and our strong democratic mandate.”

“You have heard about many of the challenges over the past two days. The fact that drug addiction is the biggest problem among our young. The fact that clean water is still a challenge on many islands. The fact that reducing the soaring budget deficit has been painful in an economy over-dependent on government expenditure,” Dr Hassan said.

Furthermore, he said, “democracy remains fragile in the Maldives. We must work to guard the civil society and protect the freedom of the press. We must work hard to consolidate our hard earned freedom. Much progress has been made. But more work needs to be carried out, and we cannot deliver this vital thing on our own.”

In his closing comments, Dr Hassan acknowledged that the Maldives was known around the world less for its social and economic challenges, “and more for our commitment to confronting the issue of climate change – our commitment to carbon neutrality is the strongest in the world.”

“Although we are a very vulnerable country to sea level rise I should make clear that we are not going anywhere. Not yet.”

The British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, Dr Peter Hayes said he commended the Maldives “on the significant progress it has achieved as a young democracy working in a challenging economic climate.”

“In an era where international partnerships are vital, I welcome the proactive approach to international engagement the Maldives has taken,” Dr Hayes said.

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Parliament votes to dismiss Auditor General 43-28 in favour

Parliament today voted to dismiss Auditor General Ibrahim Naeem, with 43 voting in favour of the no-confidence motion and 28 against.

President Mohamed Nasheed was last night reported to be seeking to urgently meet with MPs, foregoing a function marking the close of the donor conference.

Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) MP Mohamed Shifaz said all the party’s MPs had voted against the no-confidence motion on Auditor General ”as it was a responsibility of the government to defend all its institutions, and we are on the government’s side.”

On the other side, MPs of the opposition Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party-People’s Alliance (DRP-PA) coalition were joined by seven independents, the two Dhivehi Qaumee Party MPs and the sole Republican Party representative.

Shifaz said he believed the Auditor General had not committed anything that warranted a no-confidence motion.

”DRP want to remove him from that position due to the reports he released, which accused many senior leaders of corruption including former president,” he said. ”They had personal issues with him.”

He claimed the parliament procedures need to be changed and there were many things to be corrected.

”The speaker has not revealed the Anti-Corruption Commissions report to MPs yet, because it contains things which accuse his own party’s members of corruption,” Shifaz claimed.

DRP MP Ahmed Ilham said it was now “very clear” that the Auditor General was corrupt.

”Independent MPs who always vote on MDP side voted on DRP side today,” Ilham said.

He said the government was trying to defend Naeem in many ways, “which proves that the government is promoting corruption in the country in the name of erasing it,” he said.

”MDP MPs forced the parliament to be canceled two days, and MDP activists disrupted the peace of the nation just to defend the Auditor General.”

Ilham said that if there was a credible corruption case against former president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, “the government should not wait a single second before investigating those cases.”

”Those are just rumors they spread,” he said. “Why won’t the government go ahead and prove it to the people?”

Ilham said while people believed Naeem was independent as the Audit Office was a independent institution, ”that the government tried to defend him proves he was a man fully on MDP’s side.”

Naeem was appointed by Former President Gayoom and a DRP-majority Majlis.

What happened

The Auditor General was accused of corruption by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) for using the government’s money to buy a tie and visit Thulhaidhu in Baa Atoll.

Naeem claimed the charges were an attempt to discredit his office and prevent him from reclaiming the government’s money stored in overseas bank accounts.

“A lot of the government’s money was taken through corrupt [means] and saved in the banks of England, Switzerland, Singapore and Malaysia,” Naeem claimed two weeks ago, during his first press conference in eight months.

The motion to dismiss him was put forward by the parliamentary finance committee, chaired by Deputy Speaker Ahmed Nazim, who the previous week had pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the former ministry of atolls development while be was Managing Director of Namira Engineering and Trading Pvt Ltd.

Tension over the motion led to violent clashes inside parliament, which spread to supporters of both major parties outside the chamber. Police were forced to use tear gas on several occasions over the weekend to subdue crowds of violent demonstrators.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair claimed the DRP were trying to remove Naeem because he had accused the party’s senior leaders of corruption during their administration.

”They are intending to spread doubt among the people, and they think it will be easier to defend themselves if the Auditor General is dismissed,” Zuhair said.

The dismissal of the Auditor General would “not be a big loss” to the government’s attempts to recover the money, ”as there are many professional accountants in the Audit Office”, Zuhair said.

He said all the political benefits being attributed to the no-confidence motion on Auditor General were due the government, ”as [Naeem] was elected by a majority of DRP MPs.”

The dismissal of the Auditor General is unlikely to slow the government’s appetite for reclaiming state funds it believes are stashed overseas.

Today during the closure of Donor Conference, President Mohamed Nasheed confirmed that a “stolen asset recovery program is part-and-parcel of the World Bank projects.”

“We are a member of that program and will of course be working within the framework available to us,” he said.

“If there are any stolen assets I’m sure we will be able to identify them, and if they are ill-gotten I sure we will we will be able to repatriate them.”

There was “no timeline”, the President added.

The Stolen Asset Recovery program (StAR) is a 2007 joint initiative between the World Bank and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which according to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, “fosters much needed cooperation between developed and developing countries and between the public and private sectors to ensure that looted assets are returned to their rightful owners.”

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AG proposes narrowing ‘the right to remain silent’

The Attorney General Husnu Suood has proposed a bill to be presented to parliament removing the right to remain silent during investigation of people suspected of commit serious crimes.

The bill removes the right given under Article 48[N] of the Constitution that a person need only reveal their name and thereafter remain silent during police questioning.

The bill proposes that the right to remain silent should be removed in such cases such as threatening a person, attacking a person or his property, assault on a person using sharp objects or weapons, murder, drug trafficking, storing drugs to deal, importing drugs, using a sharp object or dangerous weapon in public without a valid reason, storing a sharp object in secret without a valid reason, gang rape and terrorism.

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair said that the government believed it was necessary to remove the right to remaining silent on these cases.

”Why should we provide the right to remain silent for a man arrested with five kilograms of dope?” Zuhair asked.

”If the bill is passed people arrested in connection with these kind of crimes will be convicted for objection to order if they remain silent.”

He said the police would only arrest a person in the first place if they had conclusive evidence.

Spokesperson for the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) parliamentary group Mohamed Shifaz said the MPs had tried very hard to introduce the right to remain silent.

”The government would try to remove it in certain cases only when they notice a credible reason,” Shifaz said.

Vice president of Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) Umar Naseer, a former police officer, agreed, saying the right to remain silent “should be removed for all the cases.”

”This would make it very easy to prosecute criminals, so I think it is very important,” he said.

The Maldivian Detainee Network issued a statement saying it was “concerned by the news that the Attorney General proposes to narrow fundamental rights afforded to persons accused of certain serious crimes.”

“We urge the Attorney General and Parliament to ensure that any legislation proposed or passed fully embodies the principle that all persons are innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, any narrowing of rights must be done in accordance with Article 16 of the Constitution which states that “Any such law enacted by the People’s Majlis can limit the rights and freedoms to any extent only if demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.”

The NGO added that while it was concerned about the recent rise in crime and “the inability to successfully prosecute criminals, we would like to caution against reactionary steps which threaten fundamental rights.”

“The answer to rising crime in society is the full and effective implementation of a rights-based system by addressing the numerous issues within the criminal justice system,” it urged.

“The rush to discard fundamental rights is not only a short-sighted strategy which not only ignores the moral and practical imperatives behind those rights, but also risks returning to a society in which innocent citizens needed to fear the criminal justice system.”

Deputy Attorney General Abdulla Muiz did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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DRP to take no-confidence motion on Home Minister

Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ali Waheed has said the party will put forward a no-confidence motion against Home Minister Mohamed Shihab, after police detained Waheed and several other senior party figures in an effort to defuse violent clashes between the supporters of both parties on Thursday night.

”We decided to take the no-confidence motion against Shihab because he used his powers and influence against the law,” Waheed said, adding that details would be provided tomorrow.

Waheed alleged that when the situation in Male’ broke the peace of the country on Thursday night, “Shihab was relaxing in a nearby resort.”

He said the party had received information “from a trusted source” that President Mohamed Nasheed gave the order to police that night to arrest the senior party leaders.

”The police have no powers, they only have to take orders from their leader,” he said.

However the President’s Office said yesterday that the government had full confidence in police and “absolutely no involvement” in the decision to remove the DRP leaders from the protest.

But Waheed claimed that the police “cannot arrest MPs while a no-confidence motion is ongoing inside parliament.”

”The police lied to us, saying that they were taking us to police head quarters to calm down the situation,” he said. ”Instead they took us to Dhoonidhu and took our mobile phones, and treated us just like the other criminals there.”

Vice president of DRP Umar Naseer said that there were “many things” the Home Minister had done, including “attacking peaceful protesters with tear gas.”

”He arrested MPs while there was a ongoing no-confidence motion in the parliament which is against the law, did not stopped MDP thugs attacking us, and did not enforce the law,” Naseer said.

He also claimed that President Mohamed Nasheed was “giving the orders to police that night”, claiming the party had obtained the information “because 90 per cent of the police and Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) support the DRP.”

Press Secretary for the President Mohamed Zuhair confirmed that President Mohamed Nasheed went  to the police headquarters on Thursday night, “but not to give orders.”

”He went there because he is the owner of all the powers – police and MNDF,” Zuhair said, ”but the Commissioner of Police was the one giving the orders.”

Zuhair claimed that the opposition was trying to take no-confidence motion against ministers “one by one” to delay more productive bills sent to the parliament by the government.

”Countries with civil wars pass more bills in parliament than the Maldives does,” Zuhair said.

He said the opposition “is  jealous and cannot accept their failure.”

”They are trying to show the people that they still have powers,” he suggested.

MDP’s parliamentary group spokesperson Mohamed Shifaz said the party would stand against the no-confidence motion on the home minister as ”we have not noticed home minister doing anything against the law.”

He said the party’s parliamentary group would continue to discuss the issue.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of the Maldives (HRCM) released a statement appealing to the police to respect laws and to treat everyone equally when they work to disperse crowds.

HRCM said that ”political parties meetings are interrupted due to differences among people on political issues.”

The commission said it had noticed that regulations governing the  dispersal of protests “are not being applied equally among everyone”, and that Article 32 of the Constitution guaranteed ”freedom to gather peacefully without prior permission  from the government.”

Home Minister Mohamed Shihab and State Minister for Home Affairs Ahmed Adil did not respond to Minivan News at time of press.

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Letter from DRP to donor conference delegates

Dear Participant [of the donor conference],

I welcome you to the Maldives and extend good wishes for a pleasant stay in our country. Your visit to the Maldives to take part in the Maldives Donor Conference 2010 is testimony that you wish our country and its people well. I thank you for your kind interest in the Maldives and its well being.

Maldives has experienced some challenging milestones in the recent few years. A new constitution was enacted in August 2008. A new government was formed in November 2008. A new parliament was elected in May 2009.

All of these are fruits of an ambitious and extensive agenda for democratic reform that was put into motion by the government that preceded the current administration. All of these provided faith for the Maldivian people that the country would usher in a modern and liberal multiparty democracy that was inclusive, participatory, open and transparent.

However, with sixteen months into the current administration, we have been confronted with some sharp realities which are of concern to a people who are anxious to embrace a modern and liberal democracy based on human rights, rule of law and good governance.

The country is consumed in destructive politics. The political opposition continues to be intimidated and harassed. The political actors in the opposition are being subjected to undue restraint and control in the exercise of their conscience.

The parliament continues to be disrupted and prevented from the conduct of its constitutionally empowered mandate of holding public officials and government responsible. Every act to ensure accountability is being viewed as an obstruction to government and an attempt to oust it from power.

The private media is at the receiving end of sharp criticism and unequivocal objection from government officials and politicians associated with the government. Officials and owners of certain private media are being subjected to unnecessary harassment and public ridicule.

The judiciary continues to meet with harsh political rhetoric from politicians associated with the government and certain public officials. Independence of the judiciary, although guaranteed by the constitution, is increasingly becoming an untenable reality in the current climate.

The independent institutions of the state are also being controlled through restrictions put on their expenditure and budget. Additionally, those institutions such as the Human Rights Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission and the Civil Service Commission are being subject to unnecessary and harsh rhetoric from politicians associated with the government.

The shift in the economic policy has seen the creation of some twenty over government companies within the last one year where activists and sympathizers of the current government and the political parties associated with it, are being rewarded with directorial and other positions even though they are far from being competent for those positions.

The economic policy of the government is also seen as a roller coaster ride of privatization of various government undertakings including sale of profit making state assets and enterprises, without any transparent public bidding or credible policy or process.

The reduction of the civil service by a third is being achieved not through proper laws on redundancy or lay off, but through a backdoor approach of converting civil service outfits into government corporations and taking those outfits outside the ambit of civil service thereby throwing the security of tenure otherwise available to a civil servant into oblivion.

Citing economic difficulty, the government has unilaterally withheld percentages of salary for public officials and civil servants even though there are laws guaranteeing their pay and benefits. The situation is exacerbated with the creation of hosts of political posts totally unnecessary to discharge the functions of the president, but seen beneficial to reward associates and activists of the president and his party.

Although the current president came to power on a platform of democracy, good governance, human rights and rule of law, there has not been a single policy or project or program that has been unveiled in the past one and half years of his administration that could spell out the vision and strategies of the president to consolidate a democratic culture in the Maldives.

Quite conversely, we are seeing the country sliding into political chaos and resultant instability.

The president has often remained a president for the men and women of his party, and has failed miserably to reach out to the rest of the people of this country by becoming a leader of the nation.

He has failed to institute any mechanisms for participation and inclusion of the political opposition in matters of national importance, or develop a framework for consultation and dialogue with the opposition in the conduct of the affairs of the nation.

That is brief and incomplete overview of the state of affairs in the Maldives under the leadership of the current administration.

Therefore, it is my humble request that you may please exercise the powers of your good offices to address the issues of democratic deficit in the current administration – counsel against the efforts of the government to consolidate absolute power in their hands, and advocate for the discontinuation of their endeavors to eliminate an effective political opposition.

It is also my appeal to you that you may please consider linking of aid or assistance or investment to clear cut standards or processes of democratic consolidation, fair play, good governance, and rule of law in the Maldives.

While thanking you, I remain,

Yours faithfully

Ahmed Thasmeen Ali

Leader Elect, Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP)

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Comment: We need help to make the medicine go down

Extract from a speech given by President Mohamed Nasheed to the Maldives Donors Conference 2010.

We have come here today from many different parts of the world. Some of you are based in the Maldives. Some of you have visited many times. For others, it may be your first visit to our country. We are a diverse collection of people.

Some of you are from government, some from multilateral institutions, some from grant giving organisations. Although we are many different people, we are brought together by a common goal: We all want to see a peaceful Maldives, and we all want to see a prosperous Maldives.

And so, I welcome you here as friends. And I hope we can work together towards our common vision. The Maldives has made considerable progress over the past eighteen months. This administration was voted in because people wanted political change. There is much work to do.

Politics

The separation of powers enshrined under the new constitution has been respected. Last year, we held this country’s first democratic parliamentary elections, which were judged free and fair by international observers.
We now have a Majlis that is democratically elected, doing away with the old system where 20 per cent of MPs were appointed by the President.

The judiciary is independent of the executive and legislature. I have made no secret of my concerns over the capacity of the judiciary to dispense justice. Nevertheless, we respect its independence and I hope that with training and capacity support, the judiciary will grow into a respected institution.

This administration respects fundamental rights and liberties. People are now free to join political parties, and participation in politics is very high. Over 80 per cent of the voting public took part in the presidential and parliamentary elections.

Almost 10 per cent of the population has joined the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party; and a further 10 per cent of people have signed up for the main opposition [Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party]. Free, open and competitive politics is now part and parcel of people’s daily lives.

Media

Press freedom also goes from strength to strength. We have dozens of newspapers, TV and radio stations, websites and blogs all free to report and comment as they see fit. Newspapers frequently criticise the government; in fact many newspapers lean heavily towards opposition parties.

We don’t mind criticism; indeed we welcome it. I would, however, call on certain sections of the media to be more responsible. Journalists should be mindful of the consequences of their actions. It is not OK to spread rumours or unsubstantiated allegations against anyone, whether they are in government or opposition.

To be honest, I don’t really care what people say about me. But in a small society, false allegations can be very hurtful. So I appeal to the media to act responsibly. And I ask journalists to try, to the best of their abilities, to report the truth. Of course, humans will always make mistakes. When the media makes a mistake, people who have been wronged should be allowed redress.

At the same time, we don’t want defamation laws to create a chilling effect on press freedom. For these reasons, this administration has decriminalised defamation, so journalists no longer have to fear jail for anything they write.

And with the help of the press freedom watchdog, Article 19, we have submitted a new broadcasting bill to the Majlis. The broadcasting bill will improve the integrity and independence of the broadcast media, and I urge all MPs to support it.

Last year the Maldives climbed 53 places in Reporters Without Borders’ global press freedom index. We are now ranked six places behind France for freedom of the press. This is a remarkable improvement.

But I do not want to sound complacent. Earlier this month, a gang of youths threatened and attacked journalists from DhiTV and Haveeru newspaper. This was a disgraceful attack on the press. The police swiftly arrested the suspects.

But let me be absolutely explicit about this; let me make this crystal clear: I don’t care whether you are a gangster, or whether you are a senior politician controlling the gangsters. If you attack, or orchestrate attacks on the media, this government will take appropriate legal action to protect the media.

Despite some setbacks, freedoms are improving. We still have much work to do. But I can say with conviction, that Maldivians enjoy more freedom today than at any other point in history. That, I believe, is something in which we can be proud.

Economic liberation

Through political change, we have managed to emancipate people, so they can play a full and active role in society. And just as people need liberty to progress, we believe business also needs freedom to prosper. We are therefore implementing reforms to liberate the economy.

Our economic reforms involve three crucial parts:

Firstly, we are committed to financial prudence and long-term stability. We have scrapped the reckless policies of the past, which saw money printed to finance a growing budget deficit. Instead, we are working with international multilateral organisations, to ensure we do not spend more than we can afford. And we are reducing our budget deficit to sensible and sustainable levels.

The second plank of our economic reforms is a far-reaching policy of privatisation and public-private partnerships. We do not believe that the state can, or should, play the role of business. Privately run firms tend to be more efficient, more profitable and provide better customer service and job satisfaction. We are therefore offering private parties the chance to invest in a wide range of state run enterprises.

The third part of our economic reforms involves cutting red tape and reducing government bureaucracy. In the past, the government offered people jobs not because there was work that needed doing. The government offered people jobs as bribes; to get their allegiance to a repressive regime. Almost 10 per cent of the population works for the government – a staggering amount.

And there are more civil servants than there is work to be done. Many government employees are under worked; chained to demoralising jobs. Our administration will therefore dramatically reduce the number of civil servants. But we must provide loans for outgoing civil servants, to help them set up businesses or acquire new skills.

We make these changes because we believe in the rights of the individual, over the regulation of government. We implement these reforms because we believe in the dynamism of the market, over the indecision of the state. We make this shift because we believe in business over bureaucracy. I believe that a free economy is the path to success in the Maldives.

Economic Crisis

Of course, we face many challenges. When we came into office, we inherited an economy in crisis. In the years leading up to the 2008 presidential elections, the former regime went on a spending spree that almost bankrupted the country. Our administration inherited a huge national debt from the former regime.

We took over a budget where 70 per cent of government revenue is spent on civil servant’s salaries. We were bequeathed millions of dollars of unpaid bills. And we inherited this situation, just as the global economy faltered.

According to World Bank statistics, the Maldives faced the worst economic situation of any country undergoing democratic transition, since records began in 1956. It has not been an easy 18 months, and we continue to face serious budgetary shortfalls.

As I mentioned earlier, we are embarking on major fiscal and economic reforms, overseen by the IMF. These reforms will see the size of government radically reduced. And reforms will enhance the government’s tax revenues. When fully implemented, the changes will ensure fiscal responsibility and macro economic stability.

Some reforms will be painful and costly. And the economy is still vulnerable. We are not out of the woods yet. We still require significant budgetary and developmental help, to see us through this transitional phase.

We must not falter. We must swallow the bitter economic medicine, to ensure our long-term health. But we need your help. We need your spoonful of sugar, to help the medicine go down. We need the assistance to foster people’s confidence in the changes we are bringing during this turbulent transitional stage of our budding democracy.

Violent opposition

Already, we see the warning signs. There are elements in the opposition determined to block progress in the Majlis. And some opposition figures are flirting with violence in the streets.

This weekend, some members of the main opposition party, the DRP, have been doing their best to get arrested. They are starting fistfights and goading the police to arrest them. Why do they behave in this fashion? Well, it may have something to do with this conference.

I must stress that most members of the opposition are sensible and respectable politicians. But the DRP, I fear, is in danger of being hijacked by radical elements, that the new party president appears incapable of controlling. These radicals call for revolution – disregarding the democratic mandate the electorate gave our administration.

DRP radicals are trying to obstruct this conference from being a success. They are hurting the Maldivian people, just to score a cheap political point.

I understand that the Maldives is in the infant stages of democracy. But it’s time that certain politicians left the nursery, and learnt to grow up.

There are also vested interests in the country trying to prevent economic reform. Many people made huge profits from the closed and corrupt economy of the past. They are trying to prevent a clean, open and transparent economy from being created.

The Auditor-General has compiled evidence implicating senior members of the former regime in corruption and embezzlement of state funds. The opposition is now trying to remove the Auditor-General – even though it was Former President Gayoom who appointed him.

I am under tremendous pressure to act against members of the former regime, who stand accused of corruption and human rights abuses. But I am loath to take this action. If we took action against everyone implicated in corruption and torture, we would end up arresting most of the opposition.

I do not believe that arresting the opposition, is the best way to build a healthy democracy. But you can understand the pressure I am under, during this period of democratic consolidation.

There are also religious extremists attempting to undermine the core values of our democracy.

On the issue of extremism, allow me to go back four or five years ago. Back then, the ruling regime did not allow political parties, and opposing voices were brutally crushed. The only avenue for dissent was underground religious groups.

When the MDP was formed, first in exile and then in the Maldives, a lot of people left these underground groups and joined the opposition. Organised political activity helped to keep fundamentalism in check. As society has opened up, the remnants of the underground, extremist movement have legitimately come into the open. These groups have moved quickly to fill a large space in civil society.

Dealing with fundamentalism

I am often criticised by liberal Maldivians because I refuse to censor religious groups. I am criticised because I won’t crack down on the fundamentalists.

But my point is this: the ends do not justify the means. You cannot arrest and imprison people just because you disagree with their views. Moreover, the battle between liberalism and fundamentalism is a battle of ideas.

Liberally-minded Maldivians must organise, and reclaim civil society if they want to win this battle of ideas. People with broader viewpoints must become more active, to create a tolerant society.

A few nights back, 32 young people came to see me. They were furious about the rise in extremism. To my mind, these are just the sort of people who need to reclaim civil society, if they want to foster a more open-minded society.

We must defeat the rejectionists, who hanker for a return to authoritarian rule. We must overcome the vested interests that want to stymie economic progress. And we must win the battle of ideas against extremists who want to replace democracy with theocracy.

I believe we will not win by going for a crack-down, or a witch-hunt or mass arrests. To my mind, violence only begets violence. Instead, for democracy to flourish, the government must show that people’s lives are improving. We must be able to say, that things will get a little better. We must be able to highlight a brighter future. We must use hope, to overcome fear.

Helping Maldivians

I believe the Maldives is becoming a better and fairer place. Aside from political and economic reforms, we have been able to provide a safety net for the most vulnerable people in society.

We’ve introduced an old age pension for over 65s, to free elderly citizens from the bondage of begging for basic needs.

We’ve started universal health insurance, so every Maldivian can work freely without having to fear the cost of falling sick.

And we’re developing a national ferry network, so people, goods and services can move around the country cheaply and quickly.

But we need help to ensure our economic reforms are successful. We ask for assistance to help the government fulfil its modest election pledges. And we need you to support our vibrant democracy, to safeguard hard-won freedoms.

Climate change

Climate change is real, it is happening and it is getting worse. I know many people are bitterly disappointed with the Copenhagen Accord. The Accord, in its current format, falls well short of a planet saving deal. But it does provide a foundation on which we can build.

Time is of the essence. Sadly, we are falling behind. Climate deniers seem to have gained the upper hand, and vested interests are using leaked emails, and minor errors in the IPCCC reports, to undermine the case for action.

The talk now is of waiting another two years, for Cancun and then South Africa, and perhaps then we’ll have a deal. But we cannot wait for ever.

The scale of our challenge is immense. To solve the climate crisis, the world needs to go carbon neutral by mid-century. This is why the Maldives is pushing ahead with its carbon neutral goal.

We want to break the link between carbon and development. We want to show that carbon neutral development is not just possible; it is profitable.

Energy

In the Maldives, we know how costly fossil fuels can be. Fossil fuels damage the environment and the economy. On some islands, people pay over 80 US cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. This is obscenely expensive. High prices dampen demand for energy, which in turn hinders economic growth.

The Maldives cannot develop, unless we have a plentiful supply of cheap energy. And the Maldives cannot survive, unless we persuade the world to abandon carbon.

For both these reasons, renewable energy and carbon neutral development makes sense. There is so much at stake for the Maldives. The threats to our democracy, our economy and our environment are real and deadly.

We are walking on a razor’s edge. But I remain optimistic. With your help, we can consolidate democracy. With your support, we can maintain economic stability. With your assistance, we can help ensure the long-term survival of this country and this planet.

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